15 May 2018

Registration reminder for UK and Irish PLR schemes

Online applications must be submitted by midnight on Saturday 30 June 2018 to be included in the year end calculations. Postal applications must also be received by no later than Friday 29 June 2018.

You can apply to register your published titles online or via an application form. Alternatively you can request a form to be posted to you.

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8 May 2018

Remote ebook lending and UK PLR

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is currently running a three week consultation to seek views on proposed technical amendments to the UK Public Lending Right (PLR) Scheme.  This includes the proposal to extend UK PLR from 1 July 2018 to include remote loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from public libraries. (The consultation closes at 5.00pm on Thursday 24 May 2018.)

If the Scheme is successfully extended from 1 July 2018 then remote ebook loans will be collected from this date and the first payments arising from the newly eligible loans will be made in February 2020.

In the meantime, authors can continue to register ebooks for UK PLR but loans will not generate any PLR earnings yet.  Further information can be found under our FAQs on Registration of non-print material.

19 March 2018

Update on Public Lending Right (PLR) review

In December 2017 Andy Appleyard, Head of Operations North at the British Library, provided an update on the PLR review in which he wrote:

The plan is to transfer operations from Stockton-on-Tees to Boston Spa gradually over two years, completing by March 2020. The first phase of the migration strategy is to recruit a shadow PLR team by January 2018. The new team will work in parallel with their Stockton colleagues until the operation fully migrates to Boston Spa.

This shadow team is now in place and valuable training is being provided by the existing team.  You may have already started to see new names on correspondence from PLR, or heard new voices when you contact PLR via the telephone.

The new PLR Operations Team is as follows:

Kate Ebdon - Head of PLR Operations
Janis Black - PLR Operations and Marketing Manager
Emma Clayford-Rowe - PLR Operations Team Member
Joy Hatton - PLR Operations Team Member
Joanne Hawkins - PLR Operations Team Member
Ronni Reagan - PLR Operations Team Member

It is the intention of the new team to maintain the high standard of service that you have come to expect from the existing PLR team. They look forward to assisting you with any PLR queries you may have.

14 March 2018

Advisory Committee for Public Lending Right - vacancy for appointed member

The British Library Advisory Committee for Public Lending Right was established to provide expert advice to the Library on the operation of the UK PLR Scheme and to represent the views of PLR stakeholders. The Committee is made up of a Chair and six members: two members representing registered authors, two representing the public library community and two from the wider PLR constituency (book trade, writing, publishing, authors’ agents, copyright and intellectual property etc).

We are currently seeking applicants for one of the appointed members roles representing the wider PLR constituency.

Further information on the Committee and the vacancy can be found here.  (The deadline for applications is Tuesday 10 April 2018.)

12 March 2018

Authors' incomes: top tips

Authors and experts share their advice for establishing and maintaining your income as an author